Discourse : Event : Practice: Research Program based on the Concept of Events to Overcome the Dichotomy between Discourse and Practice Theories

By Franka Schäfer

With "Discourse: Event: Practice" the author presents a dynamic theoretical program for a discourse-theoretically informed sociology of practice oriented toward the concept of the event. She outlines the sociological relationship between the concepts of discourse, event, and practice, diagnoses their distorted relationship, and explains the dynamization of dichotomous conceptions as the guiding principle of her argumentation. Through a reconstruction of the discourse-theoretical foundations, the practical theoretical conditions, the situation of the method discussion, and the starting point of sociological protest research, she forms the basis of the research program and marks the question of the association of discourses and practices as a gap, which is elucidated using the example of protest research. The core of the book is a nuanced examination of the concept of event, developed from the influence of Foucault as a primary basis for transformation and translated into a concept of event that ensures a relationship between discourse and practice that overcomes dichotomies within a post-structuralist materialism. In addition, the potential of the program lies in the expansion of practice studies to include an explicit perspective on power and domination, illustrated through an analysis of the practices of resistance as exemplified by the Yippie Festival of Life.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 3658479469
• ISBN13: 9783658479466
• Release Date: August 2025
• Publisher: Springer